A reinvigorated Kings of Leon left the weary crowd in exultation, says James
Lachno

The third and final afternoon of Isle of Wight Festival 2014 began with an overhead performance from the Red Arrows. Red, white and blue smoke trailed after the swooping aircrafts – the same colours as the state flag of Tennessee. Perhaps someone had told them that Kings of Leon were in town.

Before the Nashville rockers closed the festival, another American band, Fall Out Boy, had set pulses racing. A decade ago, the Chicago quartet were at the cutting edge of alternative rock music. They were the poster boys of the "emo" scene, a sort of earnest, overwrought mash-up of pop-punk and heavy rock, which spawned swarms of devoted followers. Many had made the trip to Isle of Wight to see them, judging by the sea of devil-horn signs in the crowd that greeted every crunching riff and pounding drum fill.

Despite hating the band back in the band's heyday, I found myself singing along to the hits such as Sugar, We're Going Down and Thnks fr th Mmrs - which now almost sounded like part of the classic rock canon.

Second on the bill were reformed Britpop pioneers Suede. Though ever-lithe frontman Brett Anderson's performance was full of arch swagger, the band were criminally sold short by a thin, uninterested crowd.

Clearly, not enough of the audience were Melody Maker readers back in 1992, when Suede were hailed 'the best new band in Britain' before releasing their first single. The strength of the back catalogue the band drew on here - from the seedy, eroticised glam-punk of Animal Nitrate to twisted, gutter-love indie anthem Trash - made the magazine's claim sound less hyperbolic now than it might have then.

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Former hellraisers Kings of Leon took a hiatus in 2011, rumoured to be due to frontman Caleb Followill's alleged drink problem. By their return last year, all four band members – including Followill's two brothers and cousin – were married, and their new-found sobriety (relatively, at least) seemed to have refocussed them.

2013's Mechanical Bull was – despite the terrible name – a return to form for the band, drilling back into the Southern country-rock and indie roots which made their early work sound like Lynryd Skynrd being covered by The Strokes.

Their live show also sounded reinvigorated. The band attacked more recent punky songs Supersoaker and Don't Matter with menace, and breathed new life into old favourite Four Kicks, which featured a muscular solo from newly-svelte guitarist Matthew Followill.

Caleb Followill's aching sandpaper yowl is surely the most priceless instrument in modern rock. It injected sudden rushes of knife edge emotion into the band's less stimulating tracks, so it was a shame the vocals were slightly undersold by the mix.

The inevitable finale of 2008 number one Sex of Fire brought a communal singalong, with arms thrown around friends in exultation and exhaustion.

All that was left was a gigantic firework display set to All You Need Is Love by the Beatles. So long and thanks for the memories, Isle of Wight.